56 
UNDERGROUND HOUSES SPORTS. 
darting through their waving foliage. Tiiere were 
thousands of native flies liere, besides those that had 
come with us. When we complained, we were 
answered, *' This is a country of dates !" 
Shaty has eighteen districts, some very limited, 
but having date-palms, and paying contributions to 
Mour^uk. Edree, itself, is drained of four hundred 
mahboubs per annum. 
^Ith. — I rose at sunrise and v/ent to see the 
ancient dwellings of Edree, where the people lived 
underground : they are excavations out of the rock, 
some fifty yards from the surface beneath the 
modern town. The entrances are choked with sand, 
and they are not entered by the people, who say 
" They are the abodes of serpents." At present, 
there is nothing remarkable about them. Probably 
they vv^ere originally natural caves, which were en- 
larged and arranged as dwellings. 
On returning to the encampment, I found that 
the Kaid, or commander of the troops of the Shaty 
district, had arrived with some Arab cavaliers : he 
has in all thirty horsemen. Our visitors offered to 
" play powder," in order to do us honour ; but were 
compelled to beg us to supply the ammunition. It 
was a very animating scene, after the dreary journey 
over the Fezzanee deserts. A dozen mounted cava- 
liers dashed to and fro, shaking the earth, shouting 
and firing from time to time. Everybody enjoyed 
it ; even the half-naked, dirty, brown-black ladies 
of the town, stopped with their water-jugs, and 
